HOW DRU CATCH SEES IT

The Will of the People, Delivered With Your Face

Özgür Özel wants you to know he is absolutely, passionately furious on behalf of the democratic will of the people of Izmir. He is so furious, in fact, that he has promised those same people will express that will by physically beating their mayor. 'Slaps and punches' is not a get-out-the-vote slogan that typically appears in opposition manifestos, but here we are.

The breathtaking part is not the threat itself - Turkish politics has seen worse. It is the framing. Özel did not say the people would vote Tugay out, organize against him or peacefully protest. He said they would take the municipality back as the saying goes - which is a remarkable sentence, because the saying in question appears to be about a mob, not a ballot box. Democracy, delivered fist-first.

Follow the thread: Memphis City Council Delayed the Vote, Killed the Comments, Then Banned the Audience.

The Party That Recruited the Mayor Now Lectures About Ownership

Enter AK Parti, riding to the rescue of democratic norms. General Secretary İnan called Özel 'an enemy of Izmir,' demanded he reveal who he nominated with what corrupt motives, and accused him of making unlawful and illegitimate demands of mayors. These are serious allegations - unverified, for the record - and they might carry more moral weight if AK Parti had not just cheerfully accepted Tugay's defection to their own ranks.

The foxes recruited the hen and are now outraged at the farmer for being rude about it. İnan accused Özel of looking at Izmir with 'a covetous eye' and calling it 'my sword's right' - a territorial metaphor that lands with peculiar force coming from a party that has just expanded its territorial holdings by one municipal mayor, undisclosed motives included.

Neither Side Asked the People of Izmir Anything

Both parties are standing over the city of Izmir, each holding a flag that says 'This is not yours,' each planting it firmly in the ground. Neither flag belongs to the voters. The citizens of Izmir, whom everyone agrees are the true owners of this situation, appear to have been invited to the argument exclusively as props - either as Özel's promised punch-delivery mechanism or as İnan's audience for accusations of bribery.

No one asked them anything. Özel's democratic outrage requires them to form a fist. İnan's civic defense requires them to applaud his statement. The next time either party says the words 'the will of the people of Izmir,' those people might reasonably ask which part of their will involves ducking.